Obvious point, but this team should be at least 1-2 at this point, if not for the lapses in the Spurs game.
With the competence level of defense I can see this team going on 3 game wining streaks just if they get competent on offense for a week or so.
Yeah, people need to stop focusing on what other teams have. OKC is built around a guy 25 years old. To put this in perspective when Shai was a rookie the Rockets still had CP3 and were a contending team. Feels like forever ago, right? It was. Shai is just hitting his prime. Orlando, is Paolo and Franz really first team all nba guys? I don't think they've proven that yet. They look like nice all-star players for sure, but those get you nowhere but being a fun team that eventually gets bounced out of the playoffs. Look at Dame's career, look at Donovan Mitchell's, look at a list of guys. Spurs might be ahead of the Rockets if Wemby is everything he's hyped up to be and if they are that is based PURELY on luck. So I'm not really sure which teams we should be envy of right now. Detroit? Cade looks nice yeah. I get the frustration. Between Bari, Green, Sengun, none has really made the stamp of "Yeah, this is the franchise guy." but they are still young and if Amen continues to improve at the rate he has been improving the guy might just be it. Seriously, he looks better each game, plays absolutely fearless, and his shot while odd and quirky, has been improving. I might become an AOF soon here...
My thoughts on your thread and posts: This forum is not your personal toilet, because your posts are diarrhea.
We are missing KPJ…he was a good efficient shooter and a rugged defender….Bullock is not it,,,,he cannot shoot. Tari will be back next week and he should start over Jabari. We need to see if Cam can shoot like KPJ?
Still can't shoot Still careless with the ball Defense is better but we are giving up way too many offensive rebounds.
Guess you told me huh? If there's 20 contenders coming up , guess I'll brace myself for impact. But I'm absurd lol
**** that' IS the frustration, in my eyes.. Its practically year 3 of this young core being together and they're still learning the small things that go with showing eventual consistency .. Yeah they're still young . I get that 100%. But I would like to see some Ws in winnable games now, not just " we kept it close " or " at least we didn't get blown out like we did in game 1" .. Yes it's only 3 games in. But somebody said we play 20 contenders in a row , so I guess I'll be OK with we played em tough .
They can't shoot. We are 29/99 behind the 3pt line so far. Good luck winning a game in NBA with that percentage. You can't even beat good Euroleague teams. Jalen and Jabari are not reliable 3pt shooters, Tate can't shoot, Amen's shot is broken. Nobody other than Brooks and FVV can make his shots.
First game was embarrassing 2nd game should be a win. Spurs stole one, refs helped but Jabari could have sealed it. Regardless, should have been a win 3rd game, hung tough with GS, lost to Curry getting hot in the 4th. No shame Team is definitely better than last season and still learning We will get better. I don't mind the losses. All I care about is watching a competitive team on the floor. As a fan, that's all we can ask for
Just so many silver linings, most of them mentioned already. Will touch on a few other things: - Udoka's gradually escalating anger is the sign of a great coach. With Silas he got mad too fast and he got chill too fast and his decision to do those things seemed to be mostly based on his mood rather than what the team needs. - Udoka chewing people out for missing assignments. He even mentions Jalen Green screwing up on defense leaving Sengun on an island (post game interview). This is exactly what Jalen needs and I wish he had this since his rookie season. He doesn't call people out in an out of control way, it's very fair and serious. It's clear he's going to get on these guys semi-patiently, which I think is the perfect formula. - Sengun is developing rapidly as an offensive hub. I'm seeing bad habits and mistakes reducing. In a game against Draymond, Looney and and very veteran squad full of defenders, he came up with 7 assists to 0 TO's. That's unquestionably excellent. His progression in assists is DAMN SIMILAR to Jokic's first 3 seasons. - In the past 2 games, Jalen's efficiency has not been good enough but his efficiency has been exactly equal to Cade's average efficiency in scoring and passing on the season (roughly 22 points on 20 shots and less than a 2:1 asst/to ratio). So by deduction if people are praising Cade for his performance yet we're not happy with Green, it means Green's ceiling for this season is very high. He's struggled to understand how to stay potent without needing to selfishly take over the offense. That's a normal thing for scorers without fundamentals and it takes others months or more usually. Some games he's at the line a lot. Other games not enough. Assists are up and down. He's slowly starting to understand the balance between being aggressive and taking what the game gives him. He will put it all together. On defense I don't see an effort issue, I see an ATTENTION issue (vastly different in how you approach fixing them). With players who lack effort you have to go deep into the mind and solve long-term motivational issues. With attention issues, you just need to create a pavlovian response - i.e. if I miss my assignment again, Udoka is going to chew me out and cut my minutes. Have faith, it was always meant to be rocky, he should have been going through these experiences two years ago but if anyone can play catch up on it it's Udoka. - Amen and Sengun's lack of hesistation or overconfidence in shooting is refreshing. Sengun is making 33% on 2 attempts per game - which would be wonderful if he can maintain it for the season. Amen is shooting poorly from 3 (20%) but he's not looked overconfident, hopeless or insecure there which is a good sign to me. - Dillon Brooks has been better than expected. He's obviously on a hot streak from the 3pt line, but we have to give him credit within this small sample. This coaching staff has HEAVY shooting/development experience under Pop and Chip Engelland. I think we will see constant, slow shooting improvement from everyone on the roster and if we can slightly improve Brooks' 3pt efficiency he can be worth his contract. He's only taking 10 shots per game (he took 13+ shots last season) and doesn't seem unhappy about it. FVV is also taking fewer shots per game. Getting these guys to be more unselfish was always going to be important to improving their efficiency. They seem to have bought into it. - We don't even have Tari yet who's likely to be an excellent bench player for us. - We have the highest roster/coaching turnover in the NBA, so we are more likely to improve than any team in the NBA.
